Hockey Keeps Canada Together

I took a course in twentieth century European history from Dr Jacques Goutor, back in the 1960s and the first thing I learned from him was that hockey kept Canada together. Well, he didn't actually come out and say that exactly, but on the first day of class he told us about his arrival in Canada from France.

NOTE: "Hockey Keeps Canada Together" was one of my first posts on Michael J Morris Report after I founded it seven years ago

Dr Goutor told us that upon arriving in Toronto, he went out and bought the newspapers and the headlines were LEAFS WIN STANLEY CUP! It was 1967, our Centennial year as a nation, and the Toronto Maple Leafs had defeated their arch rivals the Montreal Canadiens in six games. It was to be the last time the Leafs would win Lord Stanley's mug.

Dr Jacques Goutor

All so typically Canadian for our Centennial year -- a team from the heart of English Canada wins the Stanley Cup but the focus for the celebrations of the centennial is on Montreal, the major French Canadian city which hosted Expo '67, and the cup is named after an Englishman who was Governor General at one time. Trust me on this one! It is such as this that contributes to keeping the country together and safe-- the invisible hand of Canadian compromise!

Dr Goutor, who at the time had little knowledge of hockey and its importance to Canadians, said he decided to stay here because it had to be a safe place if the headlines were about a sporting event. He was raised in France and lived through the horrors of World War II and its aftermath.

To this day, I watch the headlines of Canadian daily newspapers, and headline writers are ecstatic on those days they can proclaim victory for their local hockey team when it wins a title, and are beside themselves with joy when Canada wins internationally. But they know their audience. Hockey keeps it all together in this vast and magnificent land where we will travel great distances for a hockey game, and complain about that other great Canadian unifier, the weather.

MJM in 1978 at Chapleau Carnival

Tee Chambers, Butch Pellow, Aldee Martel, circa 1954

Our passion for hockey of course begins at the local level. I was raised in the northern Ontario town of Chapleau, where the Chapleau Huskies, in various incarnations were  the pride and joy for much longer than I have been around. Growing up there in the 1940s and 50s my hockey heroes were local, especially the late Garth ''Tee" Chambers, who to this day I believe was better than any NHL player who ever donned skates.

When I returned to Chapleau to teach, shortly thereafter I was "hired' by the 1970-71 Midgets to coach them. Yes, they actually "fired" their coach and I took over, and that is a story in itself. At that time though, the focus was on the Chapleau Junior "B" Huskies who played in a Junior league, and in 1967 won the league title, as well as NOHA title.

Chapleau Jr B Huskies 1966-67

 The coaches of the day were the late Keith 'Buddy' Swanson, Lorne Riley, who had been an outstanding goalie and Earle Freeborn, one real tough defenceman in his playing days who also served as the Mayor of Chapleau. Saturday nights were hockey night in Chapleau, and the great community unifier, especially when the Wawa Travellers were in town.

A few years later, again after receiving a visit from hockey players, the Chapleau Intermediate "A" Huskies were born and our arch rivals in the Northland Intermediate Hockey league were the Timmins Northstars. For three years it was a struggle to beat them in the league semi-finals but in our fourth year we did, and it was like we had won the Stanley Cup. We won in Timmins but soon received reports that back in Chapleau, the celebration had begun with horns honking and a party underway.

And so, from local unheated hockey rinks, many of them called barns, where rivalries among communities bring people together to cheer on their own team, to national and international championship series, Dr Goutor was right. It is a safe country in which to live

I welcome your comments. Please feel free to add them or email me at mj.morris@live.com

Bobby Gimby's Canada Song 'C-A-N-A-D-A' --- Happy Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day! If you were around in 1967 for the Centennial of Canada, you will remember Bobby Gimby and Canada's song  "C-A-N-A-D-A". If you were not, here it is and some scenes from those days when Canada celebrated its 100th anniversary. Bobby Gimby also was a member of the 'Happy Gang' so popular on CBC RADIO!

Reflections on Victoria Day

Remember the old ditty that goes something like this: "The 24th of May is the Queen's birthday. If you don't give us a holiday, we'll all run away."

Well, we've changed the date to make it the third Monday in May, which in 2010 happens to be the 24th, but Canadians still look forward to Victoria Day, named after the British monarch who died more than a century ago. I wonder how many Canadians today even know who she was.

It says something about this vast and magnificent land, and its people, the majority of whom are housed along a thin east to west ribbon of territory, close to the American behemoth, that the name of the major Spring holiday is named after a figure from Canada's past.

And to me, that's OK. We are a people who have never really understood each other very well -- Canada has more or less developed on a regional basis, yet we can enjoy together the common holiday -- Victoria Day.

When I was a kid growing up in the northern Ontario town of Chapleau, the ice would be off the river, and the weekend marked the beginning of the swimming season for the hale and hearty. Have to admit that I was not among them, preferring to wait until Dominion Day -- now Canada Day.

It was also the weekend when summer camps, (now usually called cottages) were opened for the season, and perhaps most of Canada followed much the same routine. At least, today as I reflect on the past 50 years or so, it seems to me they did wherever I happened to be living -- Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and now British Columbia.

We always felt quite kindly towards Queen Victoria for giving us a holiday, and nobody ever abolished it so we didn't have to run away. Every once in a while someone wants to change the name of the holiday to reflect contemporary Canadian society or abolish the monarchy. Queen Victoria's great-great granddaughter, Elizabeth II officially remains Canada's head of state -- and as an aside, she plans to spend Canada Day here.

At one point in my life I was a staunch monarchist, most likely because I was so greatly influenced by my grandparents, George and Edith Hunt, who had an abiding faith in values like duty, service, the monarch, family, country - and the Anglican church, then called the Church of England in Canada.

My thinking on the monarchy has changed somewhat today but on this Victoria Day weekend I pause and wonder if it was all so bad years ago -- at least we knew where we stood without equivocation.

We knew beyond any shadow of a doubt as my Grandpa Hunt would say who we were. We did not need opinion polls to tell us what we were thinking.

Much has changed in Canada since the days of my grandparents, but on this Victoria Day weekend, having now lived in five provinces of this great nation, I think we are still a work in progress. Perhaps it is a good time to reflect on ourselves as Canadians and define our future focusing on those things that bring us together rather than those things that divide us.

Many years ago now, the distinguished Canadian journalist Bruce Hutchison wrote in a column: "This nation with all its problems, its unbalanced politics and its replusive self pity remains the luckiest in a deranged world."

So, let's enjoy the Victoria Day weekend, and let's not run away from the challenges before us as Canadians.

Facebook groups opposing Stephen Harper decision to prorogue Parliament gaining numbers

UPDATE AT 11:50 p.m. ET: The total numbers now on five facebook groups has reached 81,152 with 53,484 of the Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament group.


UPDATE AT 8 p.m ET: The total members now on five facebook groups has reached 73,177, with 45,747 on the Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament group alone, an increase of 19,287 since 9:45 a.m. ET today.

UPDATE AT 2:30 p.m. ET: The total members now on five facebook groups has reached 62,695.

Facebook groups opposing Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decision to prorogue the Parliament of Canada until March  are growing in numbers calling  for protest rallies across the country on January 23, two days before the parliamentary session was to resume, and sending letters to MPs urging them to return to Ottawa for a "mock: session starting January 25.

As of 9:45 a.m. Eastern Time today, I counted a total of 53,718 members on five groups. Here is the breakdown: Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament, 26,460; Canadians United Against Stephen Harper, 21,616; Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament - Rally for the Cause, 3.223; Tell the Governor General No to Proroguing Parliament, 1,994 and Canada is a democracy not a dictatorship, 425.  The numbers change minute by minute so I will provide an update later today.

On December 30th, 2009, for the second time in as many years, Stephen Harper asked the Governor General to prorogue parliament. About a year ago, faced with the distinct possibility of a defeat on a non-confidence motion in the House of Commons, Harper asked the Governor General to prorogue Parliament, which Michaelle Jean granted.

Now he has done it again for different reasons, and it appears that Canadians are starting to express their anger with the decision using the popular social networking site to get the message out.

For me as person who established a graduate college program in new media communications at College of the Rockies fifteen years ago, and fearlessly predicted at an annual meeting of the Canadian Association of Journalists that the internet would play a huge role in politics, this is one I will follow with great interest.

U.S. President Barack Obama is the best example so far of a politician using the internet effectively to get elected.  It will be interesting to see if the grassroots faecbook groups in Canada can effect political change.

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Michael Ignatieff on Vancouver Canada Line on day Greyhound wants bus service cuts in Manitoba

As a federal election becomes a distinct possibility for this fall, Liberal Opposition Leader Michael Ignatieff arrived in Vancouver Thursday taking the Sky Train on the city's newly opened Canada Line into downtown Vancouver. The symbolism can't be missed as the Canada Line was originally an initative of the former Liberal government, and Mr. Ignatieff addresses transportation policy in his new book, True Patriot Love.



His Sky Train ride came on the same day that Greyhound Bus Lines announced its plans to eliminate service in Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario saying it simply can't afford to provide the service any longer. Greyhound is also reducing service in parts of rural British Columbia.



National transportation should really be a major election issue, given that for the past 20 years at least, nobody seems to have wanted to talk about it. For example, when I left Chapleau, Ontario, about 20 years ago, which is on the main line of the Canadian Pacific Railway, there was a daily transcontinental Via Rail train serving the community. Heading west the train passed through small Northern Ontario communities like Marathon, White River, Schreiber, Terrace Bay, Nipigon to Thunder Bay, then on to Kenora and Winnipeg, and across the Prairies to British Columbia. Eastbound it went to Sudbury, where it was split, one section heading off to North Bay and Montreal, or to Toronto. In fact, this is the national railway that John A. Macdonald had built to create Canada! Today there is no passenger service to speak of on the Canadian Pacific Railway tracks across Canada. A Budd Car runs from Sudbury to White River three days a week.



Via Rail does run a part-time passenger service from Vancouver to Montreal on the Canadian National Railway tracks through Edmonton to Saskatoon and Winnipeg and then across a vast relatively unpopulated area to Sudbury. It boggles my mind when I think that Calgary and Regina for example do not have daily transcontinental passenger train service.



Chapleau no longer even has bus service and it looks like rural Canadian communities are going to become even more isolated than they are now if Greyhound cuts its service as announced.



The turn back the clock and accept the status quo mentality that permeates municipal, provincial and federal goverments in Canada has to end. They need to be jolted into accepting that we face new realities because of their failure to properly serve the people who put them into office over the past 20 years and longer.



One place to start is with a national transportation policy equivalent to the vision that Sir John A. and the founders of Canada had in the 19th century.



In his book Mr. Ignatieff writes about the success of high speed passenger trains in Europe but in Canada studies have been done for 50 years on high speed between Vancouver and Calgary, Windsor to Quebec City and Calgary to Edmonton. Nothing happened. He suggests that if we are really nation builders we would start on them now. I agree with Mr. Ignatieff, and suggest that if he becomes prime minister he look at rural Canada and the needs of the people who live there too.

Michael Ignatieff, in True Patriot Love, on national vision for Canada

In his latest book True Patriot Love, four generations in search of Canada, Michael Ignatieff writes like a leader, shares his passion for and belief in the country, and provides an insight into the major challenges he sees facing the nation.

He does it all most effectively while telling the stories of his great grandfather, George Monro Grant who travelled with Sandford Fleming to map the railway line across Canada; his grandfather, William Lawson Grant who served in World War I, returning home with belief that Canada earned right to be sovereign nation, and his uncle, George Grant, who believed that Canada had gone from colony to nation and back to colony -- the second time of the United States.

Now that he has stated his case so eloquently, Mr. Ignatieff, who is the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada , has to convince Canadians that he has the right stuff to meet the challenges facing Canada as prime minister.

Mr. Ignatieff suggests that the Trans Canada highway should be four lanes across the nation as we "pretend" we have a national highway today. "In many places -- northern Ontario or the interior of British Columbia -- it dwindles down to two lane blacktop, and the local residents will tell you these narrow sections make the national highway a death trap." Having lived in northern Ontario most of my life and for the past 20 years in the interior of British Columbia, I could not agree more with Mr. Ignatieff.

He cites the high speed railways used to tie Europe together, while after "fifty years of studies" we are still considering a high speed link between Windsor to Quebec City, Vancouver to Calgary and Calgary to Edmonton. "If we want to tie Canadians together, if we want to be nation builders, we would start on them right now." Agreed!!!

He argues that we are one of the few countries that has never created a petroleum reserve to protect citizens from fluctuations in supply from foreign countries. He asks if it makes sense that we ship oil from Alberta and Saskatchewan to the United States but import lage quantities to meet demand in Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces.

Mr. Ignatieff raises other issues too, all in the context of telling the stories of his own family members, suggesting that our ancestors would ask what is the "national vision of our age." It has been a long time since I heard a Canadian politician of any political party speak of a national vision for Canada.

True Patriot Love is a good read, and a starting point for a national conversation on the future of Canada.

Earth Hour a success depending where you live?

Although it was my first time to participate in Earth Hour on Saturday night by turning off the lights, etc., and actually going out for a walk in the neighbourhood where I live in Cranbrook, British Columbia, unlike Toronto, out here it seems we may have a long way to go.

As soon as I left the condo complex, I sensed immediately that Earth Hour had not caught on in my small city of about 18,000 in the southeastern East Kootenay region of the province. As an aside I am putting my location because even my best friend wasn't quite sure where Cranbrook actually is in BC.. "I will have to go to Google Earth and look you up," he said only yesterday.

Anyway, while walking about, I counted 100 single family dwellings in a middle class neighbourhood -- 90% had their lights on like any other typical evening. The lights were blazing outside the recreation centre owned by the city as well as at the mall near my place. And I could see that "the Strip" was all lit up.

However, back in Toronto it seems that Nathan Philips Square was packed with supporters, and David Miller, the mayor, is quoted as saying, "Toronto gets it." On the Earth Hour facebook page, reporters were also reporting their pleasure with activities in Edmonton, Montreal and even Ottawa.

News reports today indicate that Earth Hour organizers globally were well pleased with the response. They mentioned its rapid growth to 4000 cities in more than 80 countries in the past three years, and estimated one billion people marked the occasion in the dark.

When I asked some of my friends on facebook for feedback, they were disappointed with the response in their community. And I had no idea if any of my friends knew anything about Earth Hour. I didn't until this past week.

Darlene from Timmins said: "I didn't see too many houses dimmed here in Timmins (at least on my street). It's a sad state really...."

Maggie said: "With my lights out and computer off..no tv or radio..I looked out of my windows and was surprised..not one house on my street was dimmed..the whole friggin' neighbourhood was lit up like it was christmas..NOT impressed!!"

It struck me that perhaps Earth Hour organizers have targeted the very large cities globally, and I suppose that makes sense. However, if I might make a suggestion, it may be time now to start targeting smaller communities, especially in Canada.

I welcome comments as always from folks with much more knowledge than I have about Earth Hour. At the very least it has made me think seriously about the Greening of Michael... and I have not quite finished Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas L Friedman.

Email me too at mj.morris@live.ca